A toilet apparatus that includes a human body detection sensor has been proposed. The human body detection sensor detects a user entering a toilet room, a user exiting the toilet room, etc. JP-A 2004-194999 (Kokai) discusses the following toilet apparatus. A low tank cover is mounted on the upper surface of the rear part of the toilet. A toilet seat and a toilet lid are mounted to be rotatable at the front edge lower part of the low tank cover. The human body detection sensor is mounted at the front surface part inside the low tank cover.
When the user uses the toilet apparatus, mainly there are the case where defecation is performed in a state of sitting on the toilet seat, and the case where standing urination is performed in a state of standing in front of the toilet apparatus. The user that is seated on the toilet seat can be detected relatively easily by using a seat contact sensor, etc., provided in the toilet seat. On the other hand, the user that performs standing urination is not detected easily in the case where the human body detection sensor detects the movement of the object as in a doppler sensor that uses a radio wave, because the user substantially does not move in front of the toilet apparatus.
If the movement of the user performing standing urination cannot be detected, there are cases where it is detected that the use of the toilet apparatus is finished even though the user is performing standing urination. In the case where the toilet apparatus is to receive the detection result and perform the washing of the toilet, the opening and closing of the toilet seat, etc., there is a possibility that such a misdetection may cause the toilet to be washed and/or the toilet seat and/or the toilet lid to be closed during the standing urination. Therefore, it is desirable for the sensor to be able to detect a slight movement of the user while the user is performing standing urination.
It may be considered to set the sensitivity of the sensor to be high as a method for detecting the movement of the user performing standing urination. However, if the sensitivity of the sensor is set to be high, there are cases where a human outside the toilet room is undesirably detected. In such a case, the human that is outside the toilet room continues to be detected even though the user has finished using the toilet apparatus and has exited the toilet room; and the washing of the toilet, etc., are not performed.
The invention is based on the recognition of such problems and is directed to provide a sanitary washing device in which misdetections do not occur easily, and the detection precision of the user performing standing urination can be increased.